1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system which allow a design to be evaluated appropriately and a series of processing steps from the planning to the actual production of a fashion design to be processed in linkage within one and the same office, thus allowing the time, labor and cost which have been spent for such processing steps to be reduced considerably and products sensitive to trends to be developed quickly. In addition to that, the present invention relates to a technology which allows the production cost to be reduced considerably and the apprehension for the environmental pollution to be relaxed considerably by allowing dyes used in the actual production to be saved considerably.
2. Description of Related Art
In the fashion industry, it is very important to improve the design development speed how to develop a design quickly in anticipation of the fashion, to enhance the linkage among each processing step from the design development to the actual production by quickly and efficiently connecting the developed product design to the actual production and to reduce the cost of the actual production to maintain competitive power within the industry. In addition to that, dyes discharged to the realm of nature during the actual production has been posing a problem of environmental pollution and it has become an important subject how to reduce the disused dyes in recent years.
Hitherto, the most of the processing steps from the planning of a fashion design to the actual production rely on manual works except of the actual production process. For instance, in planning a fashion design, designs such as a style and a color pattern of a dress which a designer has sketched are checked and corrected on papers to narrow down to several hopeful designs. Then, trial samples are made from the several designs thus narrowed down to be evaluated by a client and only one evaluated highly by the client is actually produced.
Such method, however, has had the following problems.
1) Because the design has been checked while applying color patterns to the sketch of the dress and thinking of the finished state on papers, no actual feeling was obtained, the design could not be evaluated precisely and the development speed was slow. PA0 2) An actual production has been necessary to obtain a cloth for the trial sample, even if it is a small lot, so long as the cloth having the same pattern with the actual product is used. Therefore, while a template for screen printing used in the actual production is required and a certain amount of cloth for the trial sample needs to be actually produced, they all become useless when the design is not adopted, though their cost will be reflected in the production cost. PA0 3) While a color pattern is dyed across the whole cloth in screen printing in the actual production as a matter of course, the remaining part of the cloth after cutting the dress pattern is disused, so that the dyes at this part become useless and the disused dyes may pollute the environment. PA0 (1) Original data of a color pattern is created by the original data creating means based on a concept of making a dress having what kind of color pattern. As a method for creating the original data, there is a method of creating data of a coloring boundary line (synonymous with data of pattern) within the computer and then selecting desirable specified colors from the color chart for each part within the coloring boundary line to specify to the computer. There is also a method of reading the color pattern from a sample by using an image scanner, a digital camera and the like and subtracting the color pattern read in the full color state to apply the specified color selected by the client from the color chart to the color after the subtraction or to automatically convert the color of each part of the color pattern represented by RGB on the display screen into the four fundamental colors of CMYB by the computer. PA0 (2) After obtaining an outline image, the standard sheet for evaluating the color pattern is set in the plotter B to print in the exact size by using the inks for printing the standard sheet. Then, it is confirmed whether the color pattern thus printed out conforms to the requirement of the client. When it conforms, the color pattern is defined and if not, the color, pattern and structure are corrected repeating the same procedure until the color pattern conforming to the requirement is obtained. The color pattern is printed on the standard sheet by converting each specified color colored in each part of the pattern in the original data into the network points represented by the four fundamental colors of CMYB. The network point representation is implemented by equalizing the size of each network point or by differentiating the size of each network point. When the size is equal, the concentration is represented by the density of disposed network points and when the size is differentiated, the concentration is represented by a rate of an area occupied by the network point per unit area. PA0 (3) When the color pattern is defined, cutting patterns of the dress are created using the color pattern as the ground pattern. Then, the color data of the specified color colored to each part of the pattern in the original data is converted to the network points represented by the four fundamental colors of CMYB. Although the color matching data peculiar to the dye set in consideration of the dye material and cloth material may be used in the conversion, the color matching data in printing on the standard sheet may be used in common when the tint of each color dye is made to coincide with each color ink for printing on the standard sheet as much as possible as described in claim 15. only the inside of the outline of the cutting pattern is dyed and the outside thereof is not dyed. PA0 (4) The dyed cloth is cut and seamed in accordance to the pattern to create the trial sample. PA0 (5) The trial sample is evaluated and is discussed whether or not to put on the actual production line. When it is determined to put on the actual production line, a block copy film used in the textile printing in the actual production is prepared per each specified color by color-separating the original data per each specified color based on a number of colors contained in the original data. A number of the block copy films coincides with the number of specified colors defined in the original data creating step. For instance, although it may be considered to prepare a plurality of block copy films for the same specified color, it is worthless industrially because it may become a factor of increasing the cost. Accordingly, considering the textile printing cost, it is preferable to cause the number of block copy films to coincide with the number of specified colors. PA0 (6) The block copy films thus finished are handed to a platemaker to make plates for screen printing in the actual production. There is also a case when the data for preparing the block copy films is sent directly to the platemaker or a textile printing shop, without preparing the block copy films. PA0 (7) The dyeing process as the actual production is carried out in the textile printing shop by using the finished plates for textile printing. The standard sheet printed out for evaluating the color pattern has been handed to the textile printing shop and workers of the shop prepare the dyes by making reference to the color pattern sample printed out in the standard sheet. Preparing the dye in accordance to the color pattern printed out on the standard sheet allows the cloth dyed in the color pattern having an image close to the original is finished. Only the inside of the outline of the cutting pattern is dyed and the outside thereof is not dyed in the actual production. It is needless to say that the whole cloth may be dyed as usual if the effect of reducing the amount of dye used is required.
Beside these problems concerning to the planning of the fashion design, there have been the following important problems.
Thus, there have been various problems in the prior art processing steps from the design and planning of a fashion to the actual production that the design cannot be evaluated precisely and the design development speed is slow, that the raw materials, time and labor are wasteful, becoming a factor of increasing the production cost and that the disused dyes may cause the environmental pollution.
While there exists a system which allows a design edited on a display screen to be output by a color copier by connecting the color copier to a computer in the field of design development, this system allows the design to be output only on a paper or a film. Accordingly, it has been necessary to implement the actual production after making plates for screen printing as usual in order to obtain trial samples. Still more, because the color copier is extremely expensive, it costs a lot to introduce it and it has been difficult to introduce it by small companies.
Accordingly, the present invention has been devised in view of such situation and has been intended to provide a fashion design and production supporting method and a system therefor which allow designs to be evaluated precisely, the design development to be quickened, the cost of the product to be lowered by eliminating the waste of the raw materials, time and labor and the environmental pollution to be suppressed and which can be introduced at low cost.